A man who crashed a carjacked Volkswagen so violently it split in two before he left his two friends to die was sentenced Friday to 18 years in prison.

"If you flee from the police, people will die," said Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Mark Sanders. "This has got to stop."

Sanders sentenced 19-year-old Lontrell Lee for the January incident that killed his two passengers — his brother Oscar Rash and cousin Antoine Jones — and severely injured another driver.

About 7 p.m. Jan. 20, two out-of-town men looking to buy drugs stopped at a gas station near N. 29th St. and W. Villard Ave. Instead, they were robbed of their Volkswagen Passat at gunpoint.

About an hour later police saw the car, with Lee at the wheel. He sped through four-way stops and then ran a red light at N. 31st St. and Capitol Drive, slammed into another car, then veered into a concrete pole that split the Volkswagen in half.

Jones, 15, was thrown 100 feet. Rash, 18, died instantly. At first, police who arrived within minutes thought they were the only occupants. Only later did they find a right shoe stuck under the gas pedal that belonged to someone else.

Lee had limped away down some railroad tracks.

"It speaks volumes about his character," Assistant District Attorney Michael Lonski said, "that he runs out on his friends, leaving them to die on the pavement like pieces of garbage."

But those victims' relatives all turned out in support of Lee, and several asked Sanders to be lenient because he didn't intend the fatal consequences.

Sanders told Lee it was "incredibly kind, loving and compassionate" of his family to forgive him, but that a broader message needed to be sent.

"This was a conglomeration of crimes that happen way too often," the judge said.

Lee, originally charged with eight counts, pleaded guilty to two counts of second-degree reckless homicide, and one of fleeing-causing bodily harm. Sanders sentenced him to eight years for each death and two years for the injury to the driver of the car he struck. He also ordered 13 years of extended supervision after the prison term.